Jackie Aprile Sr died of intestinal cancer in Episode 4 of Season One, "Meadowlands".

Twice, we saw Richie have problems. One, with Janice. When she kept saying, "You're the boss. It should be you," Richie was done.

The other time was in Episode 3 of Season Two, when he first got out of prison. Silvio set him up with two strippers in the champagne room. He couldn't finish with them because of impotence.

He had some issues.

Jackie Aprile Sr was the acting boss of the North Jersey mob. The real boss is an aged Mafioso named Ercoli "Eckley" DiMeo, who is serving a life sentence in prison. DiMeo may have the formal title of boss, but it's meaningless. He is apparently senile as hell and holds no real power any more.

Jackie may have been called "acting" boss, but he was truly The Man.

In addition to being boss, he was also the captain of his own crew, which is still named after him. This is the same crew that Richie Aprile, Gigi Cestone, Ralph Cifaretto, and now Vito Spatafore were/are the captain of.

With Jackie's death, there was a power vacuum. Junior Soprano eventually took the reins of the Family, but in reality, Tony Soprano was running things behind the scenes.

After Junior was indicted and imprisoned and then placed under house arrest, Tony became the boss in name as well as in fact.

I'm bumping this thread for the benefit of our fellow "Sopranos" fans in the UK.

I HATE vito because he killed my boy Jackie jr.

by the way what up with the title I have a lot of
black pals who like the sopranos too but all this ni**er lines got to go it not right.

Wow, what an episode last night! (Now being shown at 10:30pm on E4 for some reason, then repeated at 11.30pm the following Monday for non satellite viewers, hellish!)

So many stories progressed in this episode, especially compared to some others recently shown....

Very wise move from Finn, though it was perhaps the only one he could have taken.

Chris needs a slap, and has done for most of the show since the start! Not the brightest, he is never one for thinking about the bigger picture, just surprised that Tony has so much faith in him at times.

Tony's own intelligence "issues" seemed to be getting aired at Melfi's, clearly envious of Tony B's alleged "superior" IQ rating!

Surely Paulie Walnuts will want to take revenge for the meaningless attack on Little Paulie? Paulie snr yet again has a classic comedy scene revolving around Finn cleaning the dog shit from his car tyres, what a guy!

Carmella's world is full of contradictions yet agagin. So happy for Meadow, yet her own life has taken a huge step for the worse. Resigned to being married to Tony for evermore (apparently) she is now stuck between a rock and hard place.

Bring on next week!

Absolute sizzling episode last night. There's simply something about watching a "live" episode of this show which you've never seen before; it's like electricity running through you for an hour and a quarter (as with season four, the episodes are getting longer and longer as the season unfolds).

What an amazing episode (yet again!). I was disappointed when it became apparent much of the episode was to be revolving around Finn, but that was possibly the most exciting part, and a pleasant surprise for that too! I thought the chemistry between Finn and Meadow was top-notch--the acting on both parts was great. Finn's definitely a character with whom I sympathise. As nice as Meadow is, you could see last night how spoilt she really is; brought me back to her early season four tantrums with her father. But nevertheless, I'm very happy for the two of them, and hope Finn doesn't go take that wrong path down which Meadow's other bastard boyfriends have ventured...

Vito's twist had me in stitches. Totally didn't expect that (who would!?), and as soon as it happened I burst into a fit of laughter. Eugene's an arsehole; sincerely hope Paulie Walnuts sorts him out.

Speaking of Gualtieri, how many times does he want to make me laugh in one episode? "You always try and top my fucking lines!" at the card table was side-splitting, but didn't come anywhere near his calling Finn "Shaggy." His face when he heard Meadow's name mentioned was priceless--nearly as much as when Carmine Lupertazzi asked him who he was back in season four.

I find it bewildering why people complain about the Melfi scenes. Last night's was the most compelling ever, and an interesting thing to have Tony close to a panic attack while Melfi was there. Each week now I can see Melfi becoming more and more personally concerned about Tony--excellent acting on Bracco's part.

The directing in that scene was awesome, going from the static, unmoving shots to the almost handheld filming when Tony was getting close to admitting his panic attack on the night of the hijacking.

Tony's character is becoming more and more complex each week, and I am utterly fascinated by his character: he's a tortured soul, who, due to an almost Oedipus-like Complex, cannot vent his anger to the right people (he does jack shit to Johnny, but doesn't hesitate to talk intimidatingly to best fried Artie).

Johnny Sac and Tony's scene was excellent. Sack was almost crying when he said "If I ever find out you're lying, Tony," (again, phenomenal acting). Little Carmine has the most annoying face in the whole world!

Janice's temper gets her (and Tony?) in trouble next week. Tony B and Chris are up to no good. Chris is crying seemingly, and things are being thrown into water....again. Can't wait.

Fantastic episode, the best yet. Don't know how they can top this one, but I don't doubt that they can and will.

Season five is the BEST season so far!

Mick